Developer Proposes Adding Residential to Villa Strafford Site

As the site of the former Vila Strafford restaurant lays dormant (again), a developer is eyeing it for a mixed use development.

Presenting a sketch plan in front of Radnor Township's Board of Commissioners on April 9, developer Bo Erixxon said the plan they are putting forward would turn the property's mansion into an office building and build eight townhomes on what is now part of a parking lot and lawn.

He said they considered a single family home development, which would require the destruction of the mansion, which is on Radnor Historical Society's list of endangered historic properties.

But in order to make the townhome plan work, Erixxon said they will need zoning relief and to build under Radnor's "density modification" statute.

But Commissioner Elaine Paul Schaefer said density modification—which allows an increase in density in return for viewable open space— does not apply to the site in question. It does not apply to properties under 5 acres.

Some commissioners told Erixxon that  they would be glad to have the mansion saved and wished him good luck, but said he will have a "fight" ahead of him because of the multiple zoning relief required.

The property, which most recently was going to be developed into a restaurant before the owner ran into problems with cutting down trees, is located at the "top" of Radnor Township from where a lot of stormwater runoff originates.

Erixxon said they are looking into new technology to help keep the water on the site and infiltrate it into the ground there.